Honors Students Collaborate on Multicultural Mural Project

Loras College recently partnered with the Multicultural Family Center (MFC), Dubuque, to unveil a new mural in Jefferson Park.

Designed by Dominic Velando, the mural was the result of a collaboration between the Loras College Honors Program led by mentor David Pitt, Ph.D., associate professor of theology, and former Loras Spanish Professor Dana Livingston and the Multicultural Family Center’s Future Talk Teen Empowerment Program.

The project began in the fall of last year when students from the Honors Program began attending the MFC’s weekly Teen Night program to establish a potential partnership.

Livingston, who had previously been responsible for organizing the painting of the original mural in Jefferson Park, suggested students create a new mural to cover over the then deteriorating original. Together with the MFC, students then formulated a plan whereby they would secure funding and find an artist to design the mural which teens from the Future Talk summer program would then paint.

By May, the students had raised about $1,700 for the project and local artist Velando, who had designed the previous mural at Jefferson Park, was chosen as the artist to oversee the painting. In June, teens from Future Talk, led by Velando, painted the new mural over the previous mural in Jefferson Park.

Loras, as a Catholic liberal arts college, creates a community of active learners, reflective thinkers, ethical decision-makers and responsible contributors in diverse professional, social and religious roles.